Posted by Cat on July 29, 2011

Karen Rose, romantic suspense extraordinaire, gratefully chatted with us at RWA 2011 about her research process and journey to become a writer. She also talked about Silent Scream, winner of the 2011 RITA for Best Romantic Suspense, and introduced her 12th and newest novel, You Belong to Me.

Congratulations, Karen! Who knew that a fear of flying could inspire such a successful writing career:

Posted by Cat on July 22, 2011

Andrea Kane's newest book (and the first in her exciting new forensic series), The Girl Who Disappeared Twice, was on the NYT bestseller list within a week of hitting bookshelves. It introduces a motley crew, Forensic Instincts, who have been hired to track down a kidnapped kindergartner. Our reviewer wrote, "they form a picture that confronts the guilty, satisfies the romantic and brings a gratifying answer to the whole puzzle."

Tantalizing -- especially for those of us who haven't read it ... yet ...

Kane talked with us at RWA and chatted mostly about her research process. We loved hearing her talk about FBI dogs and behaviorists. Check out our interview:

Posted by Trisha on July 21, 2011

We'll have a full review of the book and its recipes from a real professional in our September issue, but after trying out this little spread, Eliza and I can say with certainty that Alisa's recipes are full of down-home goodness—they're classics, yet made with modern flair and by a baker who searches out fresh, quality ingredients with zeal. The woman makes her own version of Nilla Wafers, for heaven's sake.

Hope this whetted your appetite for Eliza's chat with Alisa, coming soon. As for me, I'm still working off these delicious desserts, but I might one day eat again. Maybe.

Posted by Trisha on July 13, 2011

Having never read Eugenides' previous works, I was not especially excited about The Marriage Plot. The topic sounded interesting, but when I started flipping through the October fiction releases, it wasn't even the first novel I pulled from my stack. However, it was the first October novel I felt compelled to take home so I could read the whole thing.

Eliza went into some detail about the plot and themes of the book back in February, so I'll just say that what stood out to me as a reader new to Eugenides was the vivid, honest descriptions of the emotions of his characters. In a novel that is essentially delineating a love triangle, this talent serves him well.

Though at this moment she felt abused, abandoned, and ashamed of herself, Madeleine knew that she was still young, that she had her whole life ahead of her—a life in which, if she persevered, she might do something special—and that part of persevering meant getting past moments just like this one, when people made you feel small, unlovable and took away your confidence.

There is also plenty of humor.

There was something creepy about one guy’s face––it was like a baby’s face that had hideously aged––and it took Madeleine a full minute to realize that he’d shaved off his eyebrows.

Eugenides has said that this novel is different from his previous books, "More tightly dramatized, less fanciful." He spoke more recently about the novel with The New Yorker, who has published parts of the novel twice (only one is available online). Will you read The Marriage Plot? What are you reading this week?

Posted by Trisha on June 29, 2011

Novelist Randy Russell has been nominated for the Edgar award for his mysteries for adults. Now, he turns his attention to a YA audience with Dead Rules (HarperTeen), an imaginative take on the paranormal trend that ponders what a human encounter would be like from the ghost's perspective. Here, he tells The Book Case why writing isn't all it's cracked up to be! He's also offering one lucky reader the chance to win a copy of Dead Rules and some sweet buttons. Details at the end of the post.

Assumption Osmosis is a virus prone to attack writers once they’ve become published. It doesn’t kill us. Most authors, in fact, adapt well to having the disease, even if on occasion spiders fall out of our noses in public. We swipe them away with the backs of our hands, as though all is normal, and keep right on talking. Or worse, reading our own prose out loud like it means something while the tiny multi-leg little demons climb back up the water spout.

I hate being a writer because I could be catching a virulent dose of A.O. any minute now. And it’s pretty awful stuff.

Thanks to the Internet* the early stages of the lifelong illness often show up well before an author’s first book is published. [*I’m eyeing Al Gore suspiciously here because he both helped to invent the Internet and now has the worst walking case of A.O. known to humankind.] You don’t even need to have an agent to begin to show symptoms of A.O. All you need do is query an agent and be asked to submit a partial or, heaven forbid, a full manuscript.

Then announce this minor yet thrilling success on your “path to publication” blog or in a seemingly harmless and somewhat guarded tweet. Or place it casually in the comment section of Nathan Bransford’s website. In mere moments, someone out there assumes you know something about being a writer and being published . . . and, cue ominous music, they ask you a polite question about what they assume you know. Initial exposure achieved.

Answer that question and . . . Holy osmosis, Batgirl . . . the virus enters your unblinking eye as if shot from a gun. A.O. is a tiny little spider ovum that penetrates the brain upon original exposure. You will never be the same, dear writer. You will never be normal again. Because someone else assumed you know something, you assume you know something, too.

The A.O. ovum explodes inside an author’s head overnight. He wakes from a dream of being interviewed on "The Today Show" with a million tiny spider legs dancing among the synapses of his formerly normal brain. When he gets up in the morning, he pees clever answers to all the questions the people of world long to ask a published author. It doesn’t even sting.

Even though one is well aware of the accurate assessment of the world at large that people with A.O. are total butt monkeys, if not outright assdiapers, people with A.O. can’t help themselves. If your question, dear interviewer, assumes I know something about anything, I beg you to please understand than I am fighting off a case of the A.O. plague here when I reply, “I don’t know shit about anything.”

All I know is that I wrote a book called Dead Rules, a book that I enjoyed writing. I’m struggling hard right now to forget everything in it. There, I said it. I want to be clean. I’ve joined A.O. Anonymous and have eaten a Volkswagen Jetta worth of donuts. Now, I’m trying to forget where I went to school and whether any of the characters in my book, whose names I no longer recall, would prefer Skittles or M&Ms.

{Thanks, Randy! for a chance to win a copy of Dead Rules, and a selection of buttons like the ones above, please leave a comment telling us about your favorite ghost story–or your own ghostly encounter. One winner will be chosen at random from among the comments left before 5 p.m. CST on Monday, July 4. Good luck!)

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ETA: Congrats to our winner! Tillie's favorite ghost stories were told by her grandparents and uncles: "The ghost would enter the house, knock on the dining room door (the heated room) and when one of the family would open the door there would be no one there and no one else in the house." SPOOKY.

Posted by Trisha on May 23, 2011

At BookPage, we do our best to keep abreast of what's on the horizon, literary-wise (hence our lengthy list of 2012 releases!) but sometimes we are still taken by surprise. Such it was when word of Monica Ali's Untold Story hit my desk this afternoon. The novel was a drop-in to Scribner's summer list and will be released on June 28.

The British author, known for getting literary prize nods for novels like Brick Lane, has always been willing to try something new with each work. Untold Story continues that tradition. It imagines Diana's life at 50—if, somehow, she had survived the crash that night in Paris and created a new life, incognito, in the U.S.

She has a circle of friends: one owns a dress shop; one is a Realtor; another is a frenzied stay-at-home mom. Lydia volunteers at an animal shelter, and swims a lot. Her lover, who adores her, feels she won’t let him know her. Who is she?

Untold Story is about the cost of celebrity, the meaning of identity, and the possibility—or impossibility—of reinventing a life. Ali’s fictional princess is beautiful, intrepid, and resourceful and has established a fragile peace. And then the past threatens to destroy her new life. Ali has created a riveting novel inspired by the cultural icon she calls “a gorgeous bundle of trouble.”

We are intrigued! In the wake of the royal wedding and the release of Keith Allen's Unlawful Killing at Cannes, Princess Diana mania is hotter than ever. Even without all that, Untold Story recalls Curtis Sittenfeld's American Wife—and if it's half as compelling as that book, it will be worth a read.

Posted by Abby on May 19, 2011

We are big fans of novelist Gary Shteyngart here at BookPage. Not only can Shteyngart write wildly inventive, insightful fiction—it turns out he can put together one heck of a book trailer, too. Last summer we blogged about his trailer for Super Sad True Love Story, featuring cameos by actor James Franco and authors like Jay McInerney and Mary Gaitskill. Now Shteyngart is back with another trailer—this one publicizing the paperback release of Super Sad True Love Story, on sale this month from Random House Trade Paperbacks (check out our review here). If you didn’t think he could top his last effort, you might just be surprised. Academy Award nominee Paul Giamatti co-stars as Shteyngart’s rooomate, but we think Shteyngart’s dog, Felix, steals the show. Click the image below to check it out and tell us what you think in the comments!

Posted by Trisha on May 16, 2011

Nearly two years ago, Jaycee Dugard was discovered living in a shed in the backyard of the man who abducted her at the age of 11 and is the father of her two daughters.

Now that her court case against Phillip Garrido and his wife Nancy has been settled with a guilty plea, Dugard is telling her own story in a book to be published by Simon & Schuster on July 12 called A Stolen Life.

The public hunger for details about the Dugard case creates even more parallels to Emma Donoghue's bestseller, Room, which was inspired by a similar case in Austria. Hopefully Dugard, who has not spoken publicly or given interviews since her recovery, is prepared for the media onslaught that will doubtless ensue once the book is published.

Posted by Trisha on May 06, 2011

Since so many people expressed interest in the Amish/vampire fiction idea when I posted about it last year, I wanted to let you know that your wait is (almost) over.

We just got the galleys of Plain Fear: Forsaken, by Leanna Ellis, which will be released by Sourcebooks in August. Although their cover image is a bit more restrained than my vision, I like to think that when that girl turns around we might see a resemblance.

The book came out strong, starting with the dedication:

For Reita,
Rest peacefully, my sweet friend

So I skipped straight to the page 69 test:

Blood spurted like an oil well gone amok.

Roc rolled his eyes and scrunched down in his seat, arms crossed over his chest. When would this movie end? Surrounded by the Amis teens he'd met a week ago, he laughed inwardly at their grunts and groans when axes split heads like melons—Hollywood probably used canteloupe and honeydew—but Roc had seen blood as thick as Log Cabin syrup, smelled death where the rotting odors forcecd him to smoke a cigar to counter its effect, and tasted the coppery tang of fear. This horror flick didn't come close.

His cell phone vibrated in his hip pocket, and he reached for it as he slid out of his seat and up the aisle, ogging through the swinging theater door and into the bright lights of hte lobby with its orange and purple carpet. "Roc here."

"Have the Amish converted you yet?" Mike's voice came over the line extra loud and Roc turned down the volume.

Roc paced in front of a row of gaming machines with Star Wars lasers and Terminator weaponry. "Yeah, I'm at a church right now."

"Well, say a prayer."

"What's up? Too early for the DNA test on New Orleans' Amish gal."

"A body was found. South of Promise."

Now that we know a little more about it, are you still interested in Forsaken?